One of the first critical thinkers in history - Socrates, was a teacher in ancient Greece at a certain period 2,400 years ago. Socrates: "My mother is a midwife. I want to follow in my mother's footsteps and become a spiritual midwife to help others generate their own thoughts." He compared teachers to "midwives of knowledge" and therefore became "midwives of knowledge". "Midwife's Art", this educational theory is the earliest heuristic education in the West.

Socrates: The only thing I know is that I know nothing. When he talks with students, he does not directly tell them what they should know. Instead, he exposes the contradictions in the other party's understanding through discussions, questions and answers, and even debates, and gradually guides students to finally arrive at the correct answer.

Socrates' teaching method consists of four steps: sarcasm, midwifery, induction and definition, and is called the Socratic method and the question-and-answer method. Sarcasm means constantly asking questions about what the other person has said, forcing them to contradict themselves and admit their ignorance. Midwifery is about helping the other person get answers to their questions themselves. Induction means finding the nature and essence of things from specific things, thereby summarizing general concepts. Definition refers to classifying individual things into general concepts and obtaining a universal concept about things.

When Socrates discovered the method of questioning among the ruling class of his time, most people in the ruling class could not rationally prove their assertions with knowledge, nor could they intellectually prove that they knew what they were thinking. thing, so Socrates' reward was to be executed. Socrates studied philosophy, and the ultimate goal of philosophy is to teach us to face death. Before he died, Socrates also talked about his philosophical ideas with everyone. Before he died, he said a famous saying: "I will die, and you will live. Who is more unfortunate, only God knows."

Socrates, like his student Plato and later Aristotle, concluded that human beings are generally unparalleled in their understanding of themselves and their surroundings. This view has been expressed by many later thinkers - Including Bacon, Descartes, Freud, etc. It was not until 1,400 years after Socrates that ideas that called into question beliefs were accepted.

In its normal state, our brain is mired in ignorance, prejudice, self-deception, and vested interests. We should not allow the brain to operate according to its natural tendencies. All in all, our understanding of Socrates enhances our understanding of the power and necessity of critical thinking.